Harissa

Harissa is the ingredient without which Tunisian food does not work, and UNESCO recognises the knowledge and practices around it as intangible cultural heritage, which is unusual for a condiment and tells you how central it is. It is made from a particular local chilli, grown mostly around Cap Bon, that is harvested in late summer, split and laid out to dry in the sun on rooftops and courtyards until the whole region smells of it, then ground with garlic, caraway, coriander seed and salt, and covered in olive oil. Families make their own each year and every household's is different. It goes into almost everything, from the fish stews and couscous of the coast to lablabi, the chickpea soup eaten for breakfast, and it arrives on every table alongside bread and olive oil before you have ordered anything.

What you actually see

• The drying peppers - rooftops and courtyards covered in split red chillies in late summer.
• Market spice stalls - fresh harissa sold by weight, alongside the dried components.
• Lablabi - the chickpea breakfast soup that shows harissa at its best.
• A cooking class - grinding your own with garlic, caraway and coriander.

When to go

Late summer, roughly August and September, is the harvest and drying season, when the peppers are laid out everywhere on Cap Bon and the markets are full of the raw material. The paste itself is available and eaten year-round, at every meal.

Honest expectations

Commercial tubed harissa exported abroad is a thin approximation of the homemade version and much hotter and flatter; the market and homemade stuff is more aromatic than fiery. Heat levels vary enormously, so ask before spreading it on bread. Cooking classes vary in quality, and the best introduction is often simply eating lablabi in a workers' café at breakfast time.

Nearby

Nabeul's market and pottery are on Cap Bon; Tunis and its medina food stalls are an hour away.